Prepare Yourself
by SamAndKeisha
Summary: Prepare yourself. It's what you say when there's little hope left. When else are you to prepare yourself? When the time comes what do you need? What will you do? Who will you be with? Maybe we need to prepare ourselves during life too. Maybe we need to prepare ourselves when we're falling in love.


Blonde curls hung loosely around her shoulders as she checked on each patient, making sure that they were okay. As soon as she finished the resident walked into the main area of the PEDs unit and looked around. It was almost three in the morning and only a handful of kids were still awake, and they were quickly falling asleep, Dr. Christine Taylor hadn't much else to do. The second year resident grabbed a handful of charts and began to fill them out as some of her colleagues neglected to do and then dumped on her, which of course she found ridiculous. She could hear the soft footfalls of a hospital employee come up next to her. "Christine, your shift ended like an hour ago, why are you still here?" Christine smiled as she heard her best friend, Lexie Grey, come up next to her.  
"My shift ended three hours ago, Lex. I stayed for the kids and to help out, there's a flu outbreak here." She responded smiling at her friend and placing a chart back in its place. "And I have to finish the delinquent charts that the other idiots won't do properly." Christine stifled a laugh and turned her blue eyes to meet Lexie's. The brunette shook her head at Christine and she smiled brightly.  
"You workaholic," Lexie deadpanned. Christine had known her since medical school and had finally persuaded Lexie to move into a new apartment with her so that Christine could get out of her small, cramped old one. "Well, I'm heading home now, will I see you later?" Lexie asked, Christine looked back to the charts she was working on and bit her bottom lip. "Christine," Lexie said trying to catch her friend's attention. Christine rolled her eyes.  
"If a trauma doesn't roll in between now and the time I finish these charts I will see you at home, deal?" Christine looks at Lexie who looks at the stack of charts and then rolls her eyes; she mutters something about Christine overworking herself that the blonde doesn't really listen to before Lexie leaves to head home. Christine can start to feel a need for coffee and she begins to walk towards the cafeteria, knowing that the coffee carts are closed. Christine knows she needs a break from the endless charting and so she goes outside for a walk. The cool Seattle rain reminds her of her life in Seattle and she lets out a shiver at her past. Her parents died in a mysterious accident when she was six and then she went through years of foster care. Memories flooded into her mind about exactly what had happened to her in the twelve years she was in the foster system. The images weren't exactly pretty and neither were the scars that she had from the experiences. She suddenly became extremely cold as everything came flooding back. She drank the coffee in gulps to see if the scalding hot liquid could do anything to warm her up. It didn't work. Christine dumped the half full cup as it had served half its purpose to wake Christine up, but it couldn't warm up the very small blonde. She could feel her eyes burn and mentally cursed as she felt her eyes fill with water. "God dammit, Christine, stop being such a baby." She scolded and wiped at her eyes, willing the tears to just disappear. Of course, this was a downfall that the woman possessed. She had difficulties keeping tears at bay.

Christine almost ran back to the PEDs unit, still fighting to keep from crying. She began to dictate the charts once more, correcting some spelling of the other doctors who apparently didn't own a dictionary when she heard her name being called. She turned around to see her attending, Arizona Robbins, quickly approaching. "Are you busy?" She asked and Christine looked to the chart she had just finished, it was the last in her pile and she was supposed to head home, but she wasn't going to leave if she was needed.  
"Uh, no, is there something I can help you with, Dr. Robbins?" The attending nodded and Christine took a breath. Arizona eyed her suspiciously before deciding to ignore the weirdness.

"There's a trauma coming in. Seventeen year old kid, probable internal bleeding, head trauma, Shepard's been paged and you are my resident, so you're in." She said happily and Christine smiles brightly at her, surgery was bound to get her mind off of her past. She followed closely behind Arizona as they rushed to the ER.  
"Do they know what happened to him?" Christine asked her as they burst through the doors and ran to the ambulance bay. Arizona shrugged and thoughts plagued Christine's mind.  
"The paramedics said something about an accident out in the woods. One dead, one severely injured and the other one has a couple of broken ribs." She told Christine, casting a glance her way. The resident noticed it and shifted uncomfortably. "Hey, are you okay? You seemed a little upset earlier?" Arizona asked her and of course Christine shook it off, and looked about.  
"No, no, I'm fine." Christine saw the skeptical look shot her way and laughed it off. "I'm serious, Dr. Robbins, I'm fine." She looked into her eyes, blue meeting blue and tired to assure her that it was the truth, even if it was a lie. Christine hadn't truly been okay in a very, very long time. The thing was she was very good at convincing people that she was fine. Arizona nodded as Shepard and Meredith Grey ran up. Christine acknowledged her best friend's older sister and the attending with a nod. The ambulance pulled up not too long after that, the first door opened and they wheeled out the seventeen year old boy. They were running back into the hospital when Christine heard screaming and yelling. '_Where is Sammy?' _The voice screamed, Christine spun around and that was the first time she saw _him_, being wheeled off of an ambulance and into the ER. She felt a weird pull to him and watched as their eyes met when he was wheeled past her. There was an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach.  
"Dr. Taylor, I need you in here!" Christine ran into trauma three and aided Dr. Robbins, sneaking looks out and into the ER to look at _him. _"He needs surgery, now!" Arizona demanded. Christine had a realization and looked to her boss.  
"Someone has to inform the family," Christine stated suddenly, Arizona looked at her and nodded in agreement. The attending told her to go and do it and then join them in surgery. Christine didn't protest and instead walked out and straight to the man who was asking every person he saw about 'Sammy'. She walked to his bedside and smiled gently at him. "Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Taylor," she began staring into his eyes as she did. She sat down on the bed next to him and tilted her head to the side seeing a rather large cut on his forehead. He was remaining oddly silent and Christine stood reaching for a suture kit and stool. "I'm going to stitch this up for you and then we can talk about who it is that you're looking for, is that alright?"


End file.
